Have backyard chickens recently captured your interest? Are you wondering if you, too, can join the trend toward chicken ownership? You’ve accepted the commitment of time, care, and finances involved with keeping backyard chickens.
Now you need to choose the chickens. What are the best backyard chicken breeds for beginners? Great questions. Let’s get some answers!
The Joys Of Keeping Backyard Chickens
Your interest in chickens is no surprise. Chickens are fascinating! Reasons to keep them vary from supplying some of your own food to educating your children to helping the environment to saving a breed to entering poultry shows to enjoying their antics — and so many more. But what backyard chicken breeds bring the most success to beginner and novice chicken owners?
Quick reality check. Before looking into any breeds, first check with your home owners’ association (if you have one), city, county, and state to find out what laws, if any, apply to chicken ownership in your area. If chicken ownership is outlawed entirely or there are requirements by any of these entities that you can’t meet, then your dream of backyard chickens needs to wait until circumstances change.
What Makes A Chicken Breed Easy Care?
When you first start out raising chickens, all the education in the world can’t replace actual experience. Aim for success by starting with breeds known to be hardy, low maintenance, friendly, and not very noisy.
If you ask longtime chicken owners about their favorite breeds for beginners, chances are that several breeds get mentioned again and again, but differences always exist. Why? Individual experiences and individual birds vary. All Leghorns aren’t flighty, all Sussex aren’t noisy, etc. Keep this in mind. Generalizations are made, but all backyard chickens are individuals and may not conform to expected breed characteristics.
That being said, the list of 10 best backyard chicken breeds for beginners includes the Plymouth Rock, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Sussex, Easter Egger, Leghorn, Australorp, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Dominique. At least one of these breeds should work for your situation. But which one (or ones)?
Set Your Chickens Up For Success
Chickens thrive in the best situations, and happy, healthy chickens are your goal. Before bringing home any chickens, consider your climate and get a breed that does well in it. One easy way to do this is to get your chicks locally from someone who has been raising the breed in your area for a long time. Many experts believe that the Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Easter Egger, Delaware, and Dominique can adapt to nearly all climates. The Sussex might adapt to most, although hot climates might be a challenge. Cold-hardy breeds that won’t thrive in hot weather include the Buff Orpington, Australorp, and New Hampshire. Breeds that are hardy in hot weather and won’t do well in cold climates include the Leghorn.
Once you narrow down the breeds by climate, consider the space you have available. Some backyard chicken breeds need more space than others, whether or not they do well in confinement. Larger breeds like the Sussex, Plymouth Rock, and Buff Orpington, with hens that typically weight 7, 7.5, and 8 pounds respectively, need more room in the coop and run just due to their size.
The Leghorn, Plymouth Rock, and New Hampshire are breeds that thrive best when they can free-roam and forage safely. They need space. And this is even though the Leghorn is the smallest breed of the 10, with hens typically weighing 4.5 pounds. As a rule of thumb, more space is always better no matter the breed. If areas get too cramped, chickens might begin attacking each other.
What Are Your Expectations?
Now that you’ve used two critical factors for chickens to narrow your list of breeds, consider breed characteristics. Is a somewhat noisy chicken breed OK or do you want quieter hens? To avoid noise, maybe pass on the Leghorn, Delaware, and Sussex. Larger breeds and those in the Mediterranean class could be noisier (chickens breeds are divided into six different classes based on the origin of the breed: American, Continental, English, Asiatic, Mediterranean, and All Other Standard Breeds).
Why are you raising chickens? If it’s for eggs, the Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, Easter Egger, Dominique, and Australorp are tops from this list, although none of the 10 are poor layers. If you want dual purpose, then all except the Leghorn and Easter Egger fit that. Do you want a friendly breed? Then the Leghorn and New Hampshire might not be the best choices. Go for chicken breeds described as docile, tame, easy to handle, etc. instead of flighty, independent, or diva.
Your budget also affects what breeds to consider. Larger breeds or breeds that need more space require a larger enclosure, coop, roost, nest box, etc. Larger breeds usually eat more food, and breeds like the Sussex and New Hampshire are sometimes considered to be food hogs.
Time is another element you must budget. How much time will you be able to spend with your flock? This affects how many backyard chickens you can raise, how many breeds, and even the type of breed.
After all these considerations, the final factor to consider is appearance. Which chicken breed’s looks do you like?
Tips To Keep You And Your Chickens Happy
As a beginner with backyard chickens, start with only one breed. This eases you into the world of backyard chickens and makes it easier to learn as you go. Although a flock can include numerous breeds, problems can occur when you include more than one breed. This is because some breeds don’t get along with other breeds, and some breeds are so docile that they’re prone to being bullied.
Always, always prepare the coop, roost, and run or yard before you get your chickens. Once you decide on the breed, you’ll know what size to make the flock’s home. You don’t want to get your chicks and have nowhere safe to put them.
If get your backyard chickens come from different places, keep the two chickens or flocks separated for 30 days so that you know neither has diseases or parasites that might be spread to the other. Prepare two separate housing areas before bringing them home.
Minimize the chance of spreading disease or parasites between you and your chickens by always washing your hands before and after you interact with your flock. Footwear is also critical. Keep a separate pair of shoes outside somewhere that you can slip into before entering “the chicken zone.” Ideally, these would be garden clogs or boots that can be rinsed off or easily cleaned. Switch back to house shoes before entering your home.
Your Choice
Here’s hoping you found a breed you like that suits your climate, space, budget, and expectations. With hundreds of backyard chicken breeds in the world, your perfect beginner breed actually might not be on this list. Now that you know what to consider, research the numerous other backyard chicken breeds good for beginners that just missed making this list. Your perfect chicken breed awaits you!
